Supporting the slave trade? Chocolate lovers, how ethical are you?

[AllieBaba]

You'll boycott Walmart...but do you boycott chocolate as well?

"Slavery and the Link to Chocolate

Slave traders are trafficking boys ranging from the age of 12 to 16 from their home countries and are selling them to cocoa farmers in Cote d'Ivoire. They work on small farms across the country, harvesting the cocoa beans day and night, under inhumane conditions. Most of the boys come from neighboring Mali, where agents hang around bus stations looking for children that are alone or are begging for food. They lure the kids to travel to Cote d'Ivoire with them, and then the traffickers sell the children to farmers in need of cheap labor (Raghavan, "Lured...").

The horrendous conditions under which children must toil on the cocoa farms of the Cote d'Ivoire are even more jarring when the facts are juxtaposed with the idea that much of this cocoa will ultimately end up producing something that most people associate with happiness and pleasure: chocolate. The connection serves to illustrate that the existence of misery in one part of the world and joy in another part are no longer divorced as nations are connected together in a globalized web of trade. Thus, the pleasure that people from various nations around the world are deriving from these chocolate confections could possibly be at the expense of child slaves in Africa. The problem of child slavery then is not simply a faraway abstraction with no immediate implications for anybody else except those who are directly affected, but rather it is an issue that everybody around the world should be concerned about and demand action to eradicate."

Chocolate and Slavery

Feel free to justify your own chocolate habit as UScitizen does....by claiming that the rubber for our tires also comes from child labor.

Well then, I guess it's all okay!

 

[Madeline]

Allie, I have heard something like this before and I'll admit, cowardice and self-indulgence detered me from finding out more. Is all chocolate made with ingredients from this part of the world? Can you recommend one that is not?

God, it just never ends. Amazing what humans are capable of by way of cruelty.....sometimes it just all feels so hopeless, yanno?

 

[del]

Slave-Free Chocolate

 

[uscitizen]

You'll boycott Walmart...but do you boycott chocolate as well?

"Slavery and the Link to Chocolate

Slave traders are trafficking boys ranging from the age of 12 to 16 from their home countries and are selling them to cocoa farmers in Cote d'Ivoire. They work on small farms across the country, harvesting the cocoa beans day and night, under inhumane conditions. Most of the boys come from neighboring Mali, where agents hang around bus stations looking for children that are alone or are begging for food. They lure the kids to travel to Cote d'Ivoire with them, and then the traffickers sell the children to farmers in need of cheap labor (Raghavan, "Lured...").

The horrendous conditions under which children must toil on the cocoa farms of the Cote d'Ivoire are even more jarring when the facts are juxtaposed with the idea that much of this cocoa will ultimately end up producing something that most people associate with happiness and pleasure: chocolate. The connection serves to illustrate that the existence of misery in one part of the world and joy in another part are no longer divorced as nations are connected together in a globalized web of trade. Thus, the pleasure that people from various nations around the world are deriving from these chocolate confections could possibly be at the expense of child slaves in Africa. The problem of child slavery then is not simply a faraway abstraction with no immediate implications for anybody else except those who are directly affected, but rather it is an issue that everybody around the world should be concerned about and demand action to eradicate."

Chocolate and Slavery

Feel free to justify your own chocolate habit as UScitizen does....by claiming that the rubber for our tires also comes from child labor.

Well then, I guess it's all okay!

I specifically mentioned hersheys chocolate, is it mentioned in that article.

I did find this though.

The counties Hershey imports cocoa beans include Brazil, Indonesia, & Ghana & is working to improve conditions for farmers there.

What country does Hershey get its chocolate from? | ChaCha Answers

all I found so far.

 

[uscitizen]

And until tonight I was not aware of the virtual slavery associated with Cocoa production.
I suppose I should watch PBS more and visit more liberal sites.

But thanks Allie for showing us just how bad capitalism can be without any government regulations protecting workers. those people need labor laws and unions.

 

[Madeline]

I'm not sure what motivated Allie to start this thread. I'd like to think it was to raise awareness of severe human rights violations involved in the cocoa trade -- but I fear it may have been to "show the hypocrisy of liberals". If that was the idea, I suppose to a degree she succeeded, but the responses so far indicate to me that most Americans are willing to take action if they only know what to do.

Child exploitation should not be seen as a "liberal" cause. What sort of conservative would turn a blind eye to a child suffering in his neighborhood? If none, then why expect they will ignore the suffering of children elsewhere on Planet Earth?

 

[California Girl]

And until tonight I was not aware of the virtual slavery associated with Cocoa production.
I suppose I should watch PBS more and visit more liberal sites.

But thanks Allie for showing us just how bad capitalism can be without any government regulations protecting workers. those people need labor laws and unions.

Imperialist much, usc? Why do you want to inflict western standards on other countries?

 

[editec]

This IS something people can do something about.

Consumer boycotts can be a highly effective of making coporations change their ways.

Thanks for the information about what companies are buying FAIR TRADE cocoa.

I don't eat much chocolate, but I'll try to pay attention to whom I buy it from when I do.

 

[FrankZapper]

If you eat at McDonald's you support the slaves trade, from the animals that are reared for slaughter to the slave like employees.

 

[JBeukema]

Slave-Free Chocolate

Do you support fair trade, Del?

 

[JBeukema]

And until tonight I was not aware of the virtual slavery associated with Cocoa production.
I suppose I should watch PBS more and visit more liberal sites.

But thanks Allie for showing us just how bad capitalism can be without any government regulations protecting workers. those people need labor laws and unions.

Imperialist much, usc? Why do you want to inflict western standards on other countries?

As opposed to Western masters and capitalist exploitation?

Shame we no longer keep outright colonies, eh?

 

[AllieBaba]

And until tonight I was not aware of the virtual slavery associated with Cocoa production.
I suppose I should watch PBS more and visit more liberal sites.

But thanks Allie for showing us just how bad capitalism can be without any government regulations protecting workers. those people need labor laws and unions.

When you are so poor that every person in the family needs to work, union-imposed sanctions are a death sentence, which is why when child labor was outlawed in places like Malaysia child prostitution, starvation, and slavery took a sharp upward turn.

 

[uscitizen]

And until tonight I was not aware of the virtual slavery associated with Cocoa production.
I suppose I should watch PBS more and visit more liberal sites.

But thanks Allie for showing us just how bad capitalism can be without any government regulations protecting workers. those people need labor laws and unions.

When you are so poor that every person in the family needs to work, union-imposed sanctions are a death sentence, which is why when child labor was outlawed in places like Malaysia child prostitution, starvation, and slavery took a sharp upward turn.

I am a bit confused here. Are you saying it was wrong to ban child labor? That we need more children in the mines and such?

I am not understanding your cause and effect rationale.

 

[JBeukema]

And until tonight I was not aware of the virtual slavery associated with Cocoa production.
I suppose I should watch PBS more and visit more liberal sites.

But thanks Allie for showing us just how bad capitalism can be without any government regulations protecting workers. those people need labor laws and unions.

When you are so poor that every person in the family needs to work, union-imposed sanctions are a death sentence

Except that's not what happened in the USA or England


Malaysia's problems stem in large part from the lack of meaningful democracy

 

[AllieBaba]

I'm saying unions are not the way to do it. You trade one group of criminals for another.

 

[AllieBaba]

And until tonight I was not aware of the virtual slavery associated with Cocoa production.
I suppose I should watch PBS more and visit more liberal sites.

But thanks Allie for showing us just how bad capitalism can be without any government regulations protecting workers. those people need labor laws and unions.

When you are so poor that every person in the family needs to work, union-imposed sanctions are a death sentence

Except that's not what happened in the USA or England


Malaysia's problems stem in large part from the lack of meaningful democracy

Exactly. Democracy. Not socialism.

 

[uscitizen]

I'm saying unions are not the way to do it. You trade one group of criminals for another.

Unions? where the heck did that come from?

 

[FrankZapper]

I'm saying unions are not the way to do it. You trade one group of criminals for another.

Unions? where the heck did that come from?

Unions are why the manufacturing sector has been decimated. Want to know why all the jobs left? Ask the unions.

 

[uscitizen]

Is child slavery involved in the raising of dental floss?

 

[JBeukema]

Is child slavery involved in the raising of dental floss?

raising of dental floss?